Anthropology 298

Exhibiting the Culture & History of Lewiston’s Somali Bantu Community

Goldfarb Center

This course covered Somali Bantu ethnography, issues involved in representing culture, visual anthropology research methods and theory and museum theory. Students were required to do extensive reading on these topics during the first six weeks of the course. The remainder of the semester the students focused on working with members of the Somali Bantu community, workshopping ideas, editing and constructing the online and physical exhibits.

Project Goals

The goal of this course was to create an online exhibit of Somali Bantu culture and history, a portion of which was also installed at the Blue Marble Gallery in downtown Waterville and in the Colby Museum of Art. Somali Bantus are a minority group in Somalia who were targeted by militias in Somalia’s civil war during the 1990s. Thousands fled Somalia for refugee camps in Kenya, where they lived for over a decade. In 1999, the US granted Somali Bantus P2 status as persecuted minorities and agreed to accept about 12,000 refugees for permanent resettlement. After their resettlement in the US, several hundred Somali Bantus moved to Lewiston, Maine. Many of the families in Lewiston come from the middle Jubba valley of Somalia, where Professor Besteman lived and conducted anthropological fieldwork in 1987-8. The exhibits was created collaboratively with involvement from many in the Colby community. The Lewiston community was eager and thankful to have an archive of photos and audiotapes publicly available and used as a resource to educate others about their history and experience.

Anthropology 474: Anthropology as Public Engagement

This course is an upper level exploration of innovative ways in which anthropology is used for proactive, public engagement in global, national, institutional and local information networks, program planning, policy implementation and transformative social action. Students are asked to examine past, present and envision future engagements in various social fields spanning several disciplines, including economic development, environmental protection, labor relations, education, tourism, health care, human rights, gender equity, indigenous rights, state polity and law, non-governmental organizations, popular media and social movements.

“I am proud of this site. I think it is a reflection of my work this semester and speaks for itself as a customized content management system.”

—John Perkins,’11

Project Description

Students choose a project and topic that culminates in a class presentation at the end of the semester. Student must clarify why the topic is important, who cares about it and how the project demonstrates public engagement. The final project varies by student and in the past have included:

Portfolio of products

Development of a website

Policy documents

Op ed pieces

Public presentations

Radio shows

Literary essays

Public performance piece

As John worked on his project it became vital that he understand new media through the context of social movementsin North Africa.

About the Site

“New media is changing the way we interact with the world. It’s changing how social movements are organized and implemented. The recent revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, the uprisings in Libya socio-political background information and the presence of social media in these m

New media is also changing how we digest, understand, accept, critique and learn about current affairs. Stages of News in a Twitter and Facebook Era. This site is an exploration of what we might call a fresh and emerging mediascape heavily influenced by new media and Web 2.0. It is both an attempt to understand the North African social movements and the new ways in which we (as outsiders) learn about these events.

This project became a learning process for me; an opportunity to become adept at WordPress web design and explore how different media could be incorporated into a website in a visually-appealing and informative way. Though few of us are trained in film editing, we can all tell when a film has good editing and flows (we usually are only aware of this knowledge when something does not flow or there is poor editing). Web design is similar to film editing in this way. Because of our daily exposure to websites of all sorts, we know when something works and when it doesn’t. As I attempted to create a site that was more than just a content management system or a house for information, the reality of these processes became apparent.”

Environmental Studies 212:

Introduction to GIS & Remote Sensing

This course is a comprehensive theoretical and practical introduction to the fundamental principles of geographic information systems and remote sensing digital image processing. Topics include data sources and models, map scales and projections, spatial analysis, elementary satellite image interpretation and manipulation and global positioning systems. Current issues and applications of GIS are discussed with emphasis on environmental topics. Students undertake independent GIS research projects. Topics may relate to Maine, or have a national or international scope.

Project Goal

Students will develop a series of maps highlighting the unique human and natural resources of Maine.

ST 112 Science, Technology, and Society

This course provided students with an introduction to the interactions of science, technology and society and serves as a gateway to further study in STS at Colby.

Learning Outcomes: This course is writing intensive, and taught with the support of Academic ITS and the Writer’s Center. You will be a better writer at the end of the semester. One objective of the course is to develop sensitivity to and an awareness of the pervasive influences of science and technology on our lives and in the world around us. A second objective is to introduce disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of these influences, specifically by studying the history and social dimensions of particular issues, their scientific and technical aspects, and by debating the often-controversial ethical choices they present us. A third objective is to develop skills in discussion, analysis, research, writing, and presentation in this interdisciplinary field.

Format

Lectures, readings, discussion, weekly blog post “think pieces,” four critical essays, two poster presentations, and several extra credit guest speakers. Students will engage in extensive revisions of their written work and will learn how to share their ideas using WordPress and in poster sessions. Your input, through regular attendance, active discussion, and group participation, is crucial to making the course work.

Blogs and Essays

In your writing, you should focus on a particular topic, ask critical questions, present a clear theme or thesis, marshal supporting evidence and opinions, and provide clear and reasoned answers to your questions. We will be discussing three writing strategies: Logos, Ethos, and Pathos, all of which should find expression in your work. Papers must be thoroughly documented using any major style. Your papers must demonstrate your engagement with a topic and represent your own opinions and conclusions, not just repeat those of others. You will have the opportunity to revise each of these essays. Here are some practical points:

• Give your blog or paper a snappy title.

• State the thesis in the first paragraph.

• Develop a thematic argument with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.

• Develop your argument and give an example or two if appropriate.

• Focus on completed paragraph formation.

• Avoid generalities and avoid trying to accomplish too much in the space allotted.

• Develop your ability to express yourself verbally and in print.

• End with a strong, memorable conclusion.

• Spell-check, grammar-check, and idea-check your paper.

• Read your paper aloud to a friend and discuss it, then revise it before handing it in.

• The writing tutor reads and comments on your first draft.

• The professor reads and comments on your final draft, which is posted on the weblog.

A shortcutis an icon that be “clicked” to open an application or folder without having to “go find it” on your computer. The instructions below are for running an application, but the process is the same for opening a folder or a file.Read more »

By default, the Dock sits at the bottom of the Mac display. The Dock was introduced in OS X and contains shortcuts to applications. As you move the cursor along the Dock, the icons will be magnified. You can relocate the Dock to the sides and you can set it to “autohide”. The size of the icons in the dock, and the amount of magnification when an icon is highlighted can also be adjusted.Read more »

The legacy Quicktime streaming media service on the server named “Tourmaline” has been turned off. Academic ITS worked over the past year to identify and work with owners of media streamed by this service to migrate it to the replacement service (Adobe Flash Media Server) or convert it for non-streaming delivery when appropriate.

Because of the varied and ad-hoc manner in which the Tourmaline streaming service was used over the years, it is quite possible some media owners were not identified and some media was not converted or migrated. All media from Tourmaline is backed up and still available for migration or conversion if necessary. If you had media streamed from the service on Tourmaline that doesn’t work now, please contact me so we can help fix it.